The Onterrible Report: Giants Head Freeride

Photo courtesy of The life on fire project
Words by Jason Epp 

For the last 5 years on the August long weekend people from all over have gotten together in the town of Summerland nestled in the heart of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia to ride the infamous Giants head. This year I was fortunate enough to count myself among those people to kick of the start of my BC skatecation. This is easily one of the best freeride hills I have skated, and if you’ve seen the videos it doesn’t do it justice. This event is amazing! I must say in their 5^th year these guys know how to step it up when they put on an event, and from the sounds of it they have been stepping it up every year. They even went as far as giving you a set of fresh wheels to try out on the hill and for some added fun you could try to fill out a score card to win your entry fee back. The score card included challenges like riding giants head on a 2X4, surviving the entire weekend without road rash (which is very difficult), doing a full run no hands, among other challenges.

For those of you who are unaware, Giants Head is a narrow one lane road leading up to the top of the mountain in the middle of Summerland. The road drops 700 vertical feet in 2km as you navigate your way through 13 hairpin corners. The very first day I was able to hit every run, I’m not sure how many that is but let me tell you it seems like a lot, then next day I only missed last run, and on the last day I was so tired and beat up I sat out the entire second half of the day to play with my camera. With 35°-40° weather and the fact that you’ve probably broken yourself off hard at least once by the end of the weekend I must say I was satisfied with the riding I got in. But let’s talk about the course a little bit more, it has 13 tight hairpin turns and the gnarliest part happens to be the only long straightaway known as tightrope. This is where many riders collided if the person in front of them happened to be doing heelside 180 slides all the way down the stretch. The features on the road were awesome, props to all the people who showed up days before hand to help build them. First there was a mellow bank at the top portion of the hill leading up to “gravel corner” which definitely lived up to the name. Halfway down the hill Comet had a section with a wallride bank and a ramp to a bank feature just before descending into the last 5 hairpins. Finally on the last right know as “dead man’s” there was a big rainbow bank that that saw its fair share of carnage, which also happened to be the spectator corner where Striker was announcing the event.

So as I stated earlier it was hot, really hot, and there are 100+ riders trying to navigate down this 2km stretch in a short period of time. Let me tell you, there was carnage. This mixed with the heat was a combination for gooey festering road rash and few escaped its wrath over the weekend. This event is fueled by blood and sweat, I considered myself lucky when I only got a bit of rash on my hip and split the tip of my finger open. There was one grom that needed stitches after falling on the rainbow bank, and this little dude was right at the front of the pack the next day. I even took one run at the back of the pack and happened to destroy a guy that was doing 180 slides all the way down the hill. Fortunately for me he broke my fall, I’m sure next time he’ll look before he pop a 180 standie across the path. I saw people getting to the bottom of the hill with road rash from their ankle all the way to their shoulders. This is the price you pay, and this price unfortunately can’t be included in the registration. So if you’re looking for an event that’s has no shortage of riding an amazing and technical course and some good times and shenanigans with friends I must say Giants Head Freeride a top notch event